[HANASHIR:3128] Re: Blues?

[David Weisz <dweisz...>]

Rich and others at home,

Thankfully, I've got good news for you...this year's programming did include
many more opportunities for participants to share with peers...and in fact,
as with last year, I found these sessions to be some of the most useful
hours I spent in Oconomowoc.

The other bit of good news is that, for whatever reason, there was a greater
tendency to "move" this year...from simply jumping up, clapping and swaying
in place to all-out, dancing 'round the room with 50 other people, I "felt"
the music (in a literal sense) much more this year. I guess we just have to
chalk it up to the people who were there...this year, there were more movers
and shakers.

I must admit, Rich, that I shared a number of your concerns after HN last
year. I am very satisfied, however, to say that a good portion of those
areas of concern showed great improvement, and that I enjoyed my time
immensely this year, much more so that I had considered possible after last
year's conference.

Maybe they really are listening...

David
(half-asleep in CA)

> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-hanashir (at) shamash(dot)org [mailto:owner-hanashir (at) 
> shamash(dot)org]On
> Behalf Of Rglauber (at) aol(dot)com
> Sent: Thursday, June 03, 1999 6:52 PM
> To: hanashir (at) shamash(dot)org
> Subject: [HANASHIR:3102] Re: Blues?
>
>
> Hello friends,
>
> Someone has to be different, right?    I'm probably one of the
> only ones who
> didn't have the "amazing"  time at Hava Nashira.  While there
> were a lot of
> nice happenings within the 5 days, on the whole I found it less than
> satisfying.  The main problem for me was the complete and utter lack of
> physicality within our ranks.  There was far too much time
> sitting around and
> no time for moving around.  The implication of this is quite
> profound in my
> opinion: it's that our idea of spirituality and music is about a
> person with
> a guitar in front of a lot of other folks who are there to sing,
> harmonize,
> but in no other way interact.  I have a real hard time with the
> concept, but
> I seem to be in the minority.
>
> Additionally, I felt that Hava Nashira was struggling with some
> growing pains
> last year, as enrollment was much higher than at any time in the
> past.  I'm
> sure that this year will be far larger still, if this list is any
> indicator.
> The result of the increased numbers was a lot of "top-down"
> communication,
> and not enough sharing among equals.  For me, the best moments
> were when we
> took it upon ourselves to meet and share..... among equals, each
> of whom has
> much to contribute.  It was much more valuable to me to learn this way,
> rather than learning the latest Debbie Friedman or Donny Maseng
> tunes.  This
> sharing took place in spite of the program, rather than because of it.
> Hopefully, this  type of activity will be built more into the
> program this
> year.
>
> There were other problems as well, but I don't need to indicate
> every one.  I
> mean, who wants to have that kind of a reputation?   Suffice it
> to say, I'm
> quite content to not be at Hava Nashira this year, and I figured
> I might as
> well share that.
>
> your faithful curmudgeon,
> Rich Glauber  presently in Eugene, OR
>
>

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